100 Themes KuroFai
by Sunlight through Leaves
Summary: As the title says - This is a 100 themes challenge centering around the KuroFai pairing. Enjoy!
1. Introduction

I've started a 100 Themes challenge (what am I thinking?!), mainly because I seriously need to improve my one-shot writing abilities. I'm writing two in parallel - a Kakairu and a KuroFai one, check them both out!

This is the KuroFai one. Just so you're not surprised. ^^

OOOOOOOOOOO

1. Introduction

"We didn't exactly get off on the right foot, did we, Kuro-rin?" Fai plastered a huge smile across his face, knowing full well that the other man couldn't understand him.

Kurogane listened to the other man babble away at him in the lyrical language that had to be Fai's native tongue, wincing as he recognized another one of those bastardized versions of his name. He'd hoped that, once it became apparent that Mokona was not around to translate, the endlessly talkative magician would fall silent. But after only two days in Yasha's camp, Fai had clearly decided that he was going to talk anyway.

Fai crouched down and draped his arms over his knees, "I wish I could tell you why I can't return home. I know it bothers you that I lie all the time, but…." He forced a wider grin, not wanting Kurogane to sense how serious he was being. "Kuroi, you would kill me if you knew. You wouldn't even think twice. And I want to do what I can to help before…. Well, before people start getting hurt because of me."

Kurogane groaned; he was not going to be able to take this. It was one thing to have a constant drone of conversation, but it was quite another when those words were unintelligible, especially since he kept hearing his name – or Fai's ridiculous nicknames to be more exact – and had the distinct feeling that Fai was talking about him.

Fai raised his head when Kurogane dropped down in front of him. The swordsman pressed his hand to his chest. "Kurogane."

"Yes, Kuro-tan, I know."

The other man growled in frustration, and pressed his hand against Fai's chest, "Fai." Fai opened his mouth again, and Kurogane clapped hand over it, his eyes narrowing in warning, and Fai rolled his eyes and nodded his assent to stop being annoying.

"Watashi no namai wa Kurogane desu." He pointed to himself and then to Fai.

Fai cocked his head to one side. "Ehhh, watashi no namai wa…Fai desu." He repeated slowly, stumbling over several of the words and looking at Kurogane for confirmation when he'd finished.

Kurogane snorted, "Hn. Dozo youroshiku."

Fai grinned brightly, "Nice to meet you, too."

Kurogane let out a frustrated sigh and smacked his hand across his face when Fai slipped back into the other language. He'd thought, for a minute that he might be getting through to the moron.

Fai pulled his knees up to his chest and rested his chin on them. "Maybe we'll do better this time." But he knew better than to be hopeful given the fact that he was involved.

OOOOOOOOOOO

Thanks for reading!


	2. Love

"Mrrow!" Fai purred loudly and waved a half-drunk bottle of beer back and forth between his fingers, ignoring the liquid that sloshed out over his hand. He arched over the arm of the couch and peered into the now-empty bottle, "Neeeee, Kurooooiii? Can you grab me another beer?" The words were heavily slurred.

The ninja loomed over him; fists planted on his hips. "I think you've had enough." He snatched the bottle out of the other man's unresisting hand. "Go to bed."

Fai made to stand up, slid off the couch and landed face-first on the floor. He lay silent for a moment and then burst into hysterical giggles.

Kurogane stared down at him, well aware that a large majority of the magician's drunken state was faked. However, he couldn't leave him in the middle of the common room. He reached down, wrapped an arm around the other man's waist and hefted him onto his shoulder.

"Hyuu! Kuro-chan is so strong!"

"I am going to kill you." He staggered slightly as Fai wiggled around on his shoulder. "Stop squirming!"

"But your shoulder is so sharp!" Fai whined into his ear.

"Oi, I said…!" He didn't manage to finish his sentence; Fai had off-balanced them enough that they crashed to the floor. He landed flat on his back, gasping as the magician fell hard on top of him and knocked the air out of his lungs.

He tried to ignore the lithe body sprawled over him, but the tiny smile that hooked up the corner of Fai's mouth suggested that he wasn't being entirely successful.

"Waiii, it's love-love!" Mokona leapt onto Fai's head.

Kurogane grabbed the white meat-bun and flung it into the wall before picking Fai up and dropping him unceremoniously on the couch. "Damn it, you can just sleep here!"

He heard Fai and Mokona giggling behind him.

OOOOOOO

Thanks for reading!


	3. Light

The roll of blankets just across the narrow floor from his bed lay empty, covers thrown back and lumped into a messy pile. Kurogane sat up slowly.

A faint light cast long shadows across the hallway, and he untangled himself from the sheets, wincing as his bare feet hit the icy floor.

Fai gripped the edge of the bathroom sink, white-knuckled and shaking. Though very little of the dream remained in his memory, he could still see snow blowing across the back of his eyelids, and the chill surrounded him and refused to let go.

A soft noise behind him made him spin around and raise his hand defensively. Kurogane leaned against the doorway, one eyebrow raised in a silent question that could not go unanswered.

"Oh, it's nothing Kuro-rin," Fai pulled his well-used, smiling mask over his face. "Just a dream. There were these rabbits, and they were chasing me, and…."

"Che." Kurogane flung Fai's bulky, fur-lined coat over the other man's shoulders and stalked off.

Fai clutched the fur tightly around his frame, trying to ignore the way that it still smelled strongly of snow, despite how many worlds they had traveled to.

He also refused to acknowledge the even fainter scent of Ashura-ou's magic, which was tinged with the sharp, metallic tang of blood.

When Kurogane woke the next morning, Fai's coat was discarded on the floor. The magician was curled up, his body and most of his face obscured by the dark fabric of Kurogane's cloak.

But even so, Kurogane could just see a small, real smile touching the edges of the other man's mouth.

OOOOOOOO

Thanks for reading!


	4. Dark

The rolling thunder rattled the windows as they all watched the lights flicker on and off in the run-down house they were staying in.

Syaoran stood up slowly, "We should probably find our rooms before the power…."

As if in response to his voice, the lights flickered once and then blacked out all together.

"Hyuuu, good call Syaoran-kun." Fai clapped his hands together somewhere in the inky blackness. Kurogane growled at him.

After several minutes of fumbling, their whole group managed to stumble up the stairs and into their respective rooms.

"Ne, Kuro-rin," Fai called out from the doorway, or at least the vicinity of the doorway, he wasn't entirely sure. "Do you think the lights will come on by the morning?"

"Hn, the sun'll be up by the morning."

"You didn't answer my question!"

"Shut up, and go to sleep!" Kurogane snapped irritably, hauling the covers up over his head.

A deep thunk suggested that Fai had managed to run into the end of the bed in his attempt to navigate through the cramped room.

The fact Kurogane's bed shook along with the sound did not bode well.

The bed dipped as Fai flopped down next to him.

"Oi! In your own bed!"

"Don't be silly, Kuro-tan. You want to go to sleep, and if I try and find my bed, I'll just keep you up even longer."

The swordsman grumbled under his breath, rolled over to put his back to Fai and tried very hard to fall asleep.

Until the other man threw a lanky leg over his hip.

Syaoran sat bolt upright in his bed at the unintelligible shouts coming from the adjacent room.

And then winced when he heard the unmistakable sound of Fai hitting the floor.

OOOOOO  
Thanks for reading!


	5. Seeking Solace

Kurogane pressed his hand against the bandages holding the ruin of his shoulder together. He'd woken up moments before when the pain-killing charms Tomoyo'd left on him had worn off.

The full moon outside threw silvery shadows across hardwood floor and over the form slumped on the floor next to him.

He shoved himself up into a sitting position.

It was mid-summer in Nihon, and the room was stiflingly warm considering that the doors were pulled shut against any breeze, but the magician lay shivering just off the edge of the futon.

In the weeks and months following the disaster in acid-ravaged city of Tokyo, Kurogane had come to recognize the signs of ravaging hunger. Fai had simply refused to eat after the change until Kurogane had ripped open his wrist and let it bleed until the other man's instincts had taken over.

The uncontrollable shaking was the first sign of starvation, and if he tilted his head to the side, he could just see the second sign – Fai's teeth were extended and just poking out from between his lips.

It hadn't been that long since Infinity, but the fight with Ashura, which had both injured him and drained his magic, must have left Fai with absolutely no energy.

The magician's remaining eye opened a sliver and focused on him. "You're staring."

"You're hungry." In the past, the accusation would have been met with denial, avoidance or even a blatant subject change.

"Yes." Fai sat up slowly. "But it doesn't matter. You've lost so much blood." The magician offered another real smile, the second one in only a few hours, "I can wait."

Kurogane grasped the back of his neck and pulled the other man towards him, "Don't be stupid." Fai's eye was colored golden, and his pupil was drawn into a narrow slit and had looked like that since the moment he'd woken. Fai was starving, and they both knew it. "Just don't take too much."

Fai stretched his hands out, taking the proffered wrist and extending his nails along the scarred skin until he just drew blood.

Tomoyo opened the door a crack, intending to check on the swordsman. Kurogane and Fai were curled together, the magician leaning on the intact side of the other man's chest, his mouth pressed against the inside of Kurogane's wrist, and both of them relaxing into the strange normality that had developed between the two of them.

OOOOOOOOOOO

Thanks for reading!


	6. Break Away

OOOOOO SPOILERS for the most recent chapter – you've been warned!! OOOOOOOO

Fai cradled the fragile crystal of magic between his fingers, and for one second he hesitated.

Accepting the magic back would return his eye, negating everything that had happened in Tokyo.

For that one second, he thought seriously about tossing the blue shard away, if only to maintain the deep bond that his vampirism had built between them.

But his entire life had been based on lies, half-truths, misunderstandings and misinterpretation.

Without a second thought, he pressed the fragment of magic to his eye, gasping as it coursed through his whole body.

If he had cast this last chance away, he would forever be reliant on Kurogane simply for survival, and when this was all over, he wanted the reasons behind his decisions to be absolutely clear.

He didn't want there to ever be a doubt that maybe, just maybe, he'd stayed because he didn't want to die.

OOOOOOOOOO

Thanks for reading!


	7. Heaven

"You've got to be friggin' kidding me." Kurogane snarled. Mokona had dropped them unceremoniously into this new world, which was filled with pure white buildings, sidewalks and benches.

And a very large, very gold sign hanging just over their heads that read, in shining letters, "Welcome to Heaven."

He'd landed in the bottom of the pile, thankfully – he probably would have crushed the kids and the annoying, yet essential, meat bun. The kids extricated themselves without incident, but when Fai moved, a sharp pain wrenched up the side of his shoulder.

"What the hell!" He leapt to his feet and whirled around, intent on giving the magician a piece of his mind.

Fai was standing a few feet from him, rolling first one shoulder, then the other, back and forth, as he tried to settle his balance which had been greatly offset by the long, sleek, silvery-white wings protruding from his back.

Sakura was twisted around in an attempt to look at her own small wings that stuck straight out horizontally, an almost identical match to the ones Tomoyo had made for her in Piffle.

Kurogane gaped at his companions – even Mokona had sprouted wings like the ones that only appeared when they were about to make a jump between worlds.

A not-so-gentle tug on one of his extra appendages brought his attention around to Fai, who was running his hand up and down the outside arch of his ebony wings. The other man grasped the edge of the wing tightly and pulled outwards.

He spread one of his own wings at the same time, brows drawn down in thought.

"What are you doing, mage?"

"Ne, Kuro-tan, mine are bigger!" Fai declared brightly.

"Fai's is bigger than Kuro-tan's!" Mokona chimed in.

Dead silence crashed down around them.

"You fucking bastard, I'll kill you!" Kurogane shouted at him, racing after the magician, who threw his arms over his head and sprinted off, staying barely a step ahead of the swordsman.

"Ano, Syaoran-kun." Sakura turned towards him, her wings drooping in confusion. "I don't understand. Why is Kurogane-san so mad?"

Syaoran opened and closed his mouth several times and sputtered out a half explanation while blushing furiously "Well, Sakura-hime…that's…you see…I…" In the end, he just trailed off into incomprehensible muttering.

She watched the two men do several loops up and down the street as Kurogane shouted curses at Fai. "But Fai-san's right, his wings are bigger…."

Fai leapt over one of the immaculate benches, "See, Kuro-rin, I told you."

"Shut the hell up!"

OOOOOOOOO

Thanks for reading!


	8. Innocence

Loud voices dragged him away from the brink of sleep and brought him out of the tent that he and Fai shared ever since becoming a permanent part of Yasha's army.

Three men stood in the small clearing outside. One of them had a hold of Fai's forearm, and the look on the magician's face said clearly that the person was only holding on to him because Fai didn't feel like breaking his hand. And one of the others was bleeding profusely from his upper thigh, his hand clenched against the wound. Kurogane choked down a bark of laughter – it looked for all the world like the guy was standing there gabbing his crotch.

The third stalked up to Kurogane as the shinobi tightened his sword belt around the loose top of his trousers. "What the hell is wrong with your man?"

Kurogane tilted his head to one side, glaring down at the much smaller man. "What?"

A short exchange of words revealed that his worries ever since arriving in the camp had been well founded. After watching Fai flit around for several months, these men had clearly decided that he was an easy target, and they'd tried to take weeks of sexual frustration out on the magician. Of course, their explanation to Kurogane included the fact that they had 'heard' that Fai provided that service to Kurogane and was willing to provide it to anyone else, for the right price.

Fai seemed to have caught the drift of the conversation and snarled something out, his lyrical language, for the first time, sounding dirty and crass.

Kurogane's lips twitched slightly. Despite all of the moronic acting, the magician concealed an inner core of strength, and he didn't need Mokona around to take a good guess at what Fai had said. "He said, 'Next time, I'll actually cut it off.'"

The injured man's eyes widened; it was clear that no doubt existed in his mind that Fai would follow through on the threat.

The blonde-haired magician cocked his head and smiled vapidly at the three men, falling easily back under the innocent mask that had gotten him in this mess in the first place.

"That act is going to get you into real trouble one of these days."

Fai turned the bright smile towards him, babbling out a liquid set of phrases.

"You don't know that you'll always be able to take care of yourself." He was glad that he'd insisted on Fai always carrying a pair of long knives with him when he moved around the camp.

Escaping a group of men intent on what those three had been intent on was one thing.

Burying a knife just to the side of one of their groins was something else entirely, and was much more likely to dissuade them from trying again.

OOOOOOOOOO

Thanks for reading!


	9. Drive

A gray-haired man with yellow teeth was leering at Fai as they passed. They'd heard from the inn-keepers where they were staying that some rumors about Sakura's feather had been flying around at one of the bars downtown. The area was disturbingly shady though, so they'd left the kids back in the hotel.

They reached the bar without any further incident, and Kurogane parted from Fai after the magician had leaned over the bar and coaxed a tip out of the bartender. One of the men gambling in the back was apparently looking to sell something akin to Sakura's feather.

When he returned, Fai was backed up against the bar and looked like he was in danger of being pawed by a large, seedy and unkempt looking local. Kurogane watched as Fai's hand curled around the stem of a glass behind him.

Shit.

He didn't quite have enough time to intervene before Fai tossed the entire contents of the glass in the other man's face.

He grabbed upper part of the magician's arm and hauled him out of the bar as the shouts and curses exploded from behind them.

They'd barely made it two blocks when a group of people who looked decidedly like police – it was always hard to tell when they landed in a new world – came racing up behind them.

Fai shoved him into an alley and pressed up against him, his face pressed against the side of Kurogane's neck.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Kurogane growled at him.

"Shhhh…" Fai whispered, and Kurogane realized that the police had just rounded the corner. The light swept over them briefly, one of the officers cleared his throat uncomfortably, and the light pulled away. The footsteps seemed to take forever to recede into the distance.

"You. Are. Driving. Me. Crazy." Kurogane ground each word out from between clenched teeth. The magician had almost completely blown their cover with that stupid stunt with the drink. And, seriously, he knew the other man could have handled the situation without resorting to any sort of violence.

Fai made no move to step away and just looked up at him, resting his chin on Kurogane's broad chest. "Do you really hate me, Kuro-rin?"

"What do you think." Kurogane snapped at him.

"You should stop trying to save me then."

Much later, after their journey was over, he'd had to admit that Fai had made a good point.

OOOOOO

Rrrrgh, this was like pulling teeth to get this story written...


	10. Breathe Again

During an early spring when he was only three or four, Kurogane experienced his first brush with death.

His father was away with the hunting party, and his mother was attending to prayers in their chapel, which meant that he was left to his own devices. His feet led him almost immediately to a deep lake that bordered the edge of their property. The edges of the lake had been deeply undercut by the continuous thawing and re-freezing of the surface that had gone on this past winter as the temperatures fluctuated strangely, and the lake had only recently cleared completely of ice.

He grabbed a stick from the bank and poked at the mirror-still surface of the water, tracing designs across it.

The bank gave way suddenly, dumping him into the icy water.

A strong hand gripped the back of his shirt and hauled him skyward, and the air he choked down in heavy gasps burned at his lungs.

After his parents' deaths, he started drowning in a new medium as his desire to protect was slowly overwhelmed by the enormous increases in his strength until he had finally forgotten the real reason why he wanted to become stronger.

But this time, unlike that experience in the frigid lake all those years ago, he was rescued so agonizingly slowly, every small breath being drawn in short, truncated hisses as opposed to the deep, clutching ones he had choked in after being pulled from the water.

The first shaky attempt at surfacing came in Koryo, when that demon had set her acidic water on them. His body reacted before his mind could even process the actions, and he smacked the flaxen-haired, annoying and utterly useless magician out of harm's way.

And then there was Outo Country. He'd released one of his techniques, completely destroying his sword without a second thought because, for just a split second, he'd thought the other man was dead.

And then there was Shura and Piffle and all the others…

And Tokyo.

And finally Celes, when his body, screaming for air, finally broke free of the craving of power for power's sake that he had been drowning in for so long.

And as he clawed his way free, he remembered why he had sought power in the first place, just as when he'd been drawn from the depths of the lake after endless second, and he had been overly grateful to remember the taste of air on his lips.

OOOOOOO

The angsty fluff is eating my brains.....

But thanks for reading!


	11. Memory

"Eh, I don't think that it's so bad." Fai raised the lantern a little higher, casting light farther down the narrow tunnel. Sakura winced as several bats detached from the ceiling and swooped low over their heads.

Kurogane snarled, "I'll just be happy to get out of here."

"Not as happy as you were to get out of that laboratory in Lecana." Fai winked at him.

"What?!" The ninja whirled on him, but Fai dodged nimbly out of his reach.

"Ahh, sorry Kuro-rin, you don't remember that, do you?"

"God damnit mage, stop bringing that up!"

"_Are you sure, Moko-chan?" Sakura leaned around the corner, staring at the heavy door at the end of the poorly-lit hallway._

_Mokona nodded fervently, "Uh huh, Kuroi's definitely in there."_

_Fai slipped by the two kids. "Well now, we should get him out of there so that we can get out of here." He gripped the large wheel on the outside of the door and pulled hard until it finally spun over._

_The door slammed open with overly-excessive force as Kurogane struck the inside of the door right as Fai yanked outwards._

_Fai hit the ground hard with Kurogane straddling his waist. "Ano, Kuro-tan?"_

_The dark-haired ninja rubbed his face against Fai's and let out a low growl. "Missed you." He grabbed hold of both of the magician's wrists and pinned them to the floor above Fai's head. _

_Booted footsteps from behind them tore Syaoran and Sakura's attention away from the two adults sprawled on the floor._

"_Fai-san!" Syaoran hissed. "Someone's coming."_

_Fai could barely hear the footsteps over the harsh breathing in his ear. "Ne, Kuro-rin, we need to go." Kurogane wasn't holding him all that tightly, so he probably could have thrown the ninja off him, but the fact that the other man was practically humping his leg at this point made it almost impossible. "Mokona!"_

_The world around them swirled and vanished._

"_What the hell are you doing under me!" Kurogane leapt off the mage. "What…?" He trailed off as he stood up. They were sprawled out in a deep snowdrift that just didn't match with the tropic jungle that had covered the last world. "When did we change worlds?"_

_Syaoran and Sakura had picked themselves up off the ground, "About five minutes ago. Do you not remember?"_

"_I don't remember anything since those bastards filled that room with smoke." The ninja looked around before snapping back towards his companions. "Why?"_

"_No reason, Kuro-chi."_

"_Why are you still lying in the snow?"_

"_Why not?" Fai grinned stupidly up at him._

"_Ch." The ninja whirled around and stalked off to investigate the surroundings._

_Fai dropped his head back into the snow, grateful for the cold substance since it was taking care of a little problem._

_Of course, the problem was all Kurogane's fault, but he was pretty sure the other man wouldn't want to hear about it._

_He'd just keep that particular knowledge in store for future torture._

OOOOOOOOO

Enjoy! Thanks for reading!


	12. Insanity

"How much further?" Syaoran pressed his hand against the slimy wall, pausing for a second to catch his breath. Between the flickering lanterns and the rapidly narrowing corridor, they were all going to die in here from lack of oxygen.

Mokona paused in the middle of the passage in front of him. The little creature stretched its ears out and shook for a second. "We're almost there. The feather's really close."

The little meat bun's senses of the feather had drawn them into the yawning opening of this abandoned mine. Long since deserted, the tunnels were filled with debris, and the electrical lighting system that used to illuminate the deep caverns hadn't been used in years. Unfortunately for all of them, Sakura's feather was somewhere down here, but without an accurate location or map of the warren they'd wound up in, they'd had to backtrack three times now after reaching a dead-end or impassable rock fall.

The lanterns and their own labored breathing were rapidly eating up the little oxygen that was left in the mine. Sakura kept falling heavily on Syaoran's arm as the room swam. One more wrong turn, and they would have to find their way back out of the mine, map the tunnels they'd explored today, and try again in them morning.

Mokona paused at the branch of a y, turning one way and then the other before starting down the right-hand path, which had an arrow etched into the wall above it along with the words "Giant's Chasm."

Something clattered faintly behind them; the sound of rocks skittering against each other echoed back and forth in the long passageway. Both Fai and Kurogane spun around quickly and scanned the darkness behind them.

A startled shriek brought both of their attentions back towards their companions. Kurogane swung his lantern back in the direction they'd been traveling, throwing rapidly shifting shadows across the trail.

"Waaaa, Mokona was almost eaten!" Mokona was clinging desperately to Syaoran's shoulder, shaking and glaring at the two-foot wide gap in the floor that it had almost fallen into.

Syaoran held the lantern over the fissure. He couldn't see the bottom and wondered if Mokona had any secret techniques that would have allowed it to get out if it needed to. "Maybe we should go first?"

Kurogane planted a hand on the boy's shoulder. "I'll go first."

"Ne, ne, Kuro-rin's being such a good daddy!"

Fai let out a startled yelp when Kurogane 'accidentally' smacked him in the back of the head with the lantern as he went by. "Shut up."

Sakura and Syaoran stepped back against the wall to give both men space to pass by.

"What was that?" Sakura whirled around.

"What was what?"

"I thought I heard something…" Sakura continued to stare off into the dark.

Fai gazed in the same direction, but didn't see anything moving within the darkness; even so, he was still looking back over his shoulder as he began to move forward again.

His foot caught on a protrusion in the rough-hewn floor, and he stumbled.

Kurogane barked out a muffled curse as Fai slammed into his back. His feet scrambled for purchase on the moldy floor, but couldn't find any, and he tumbled forwards, bracing himself for the eventual collision with the floor.

But it never came. They continued to fall well past the point where they should have reached solid earth.

Fai twisted in the air, trying to find something, anything to arrest his fall. His frantically sweeping hands finally connected with the wall of the cavern, and he dug his fingernails into the stone. One finger caught in a deeper crack in the rock, and he choked down a scream as it snapped.

Kurogane felt the air whistling by his ears and wondered how long it would be before he hit the ground. His left hand was still clenched tightly around the handle of the lantern, but the flame had gone out moments after he had started to fall.

Something changed – perhaps the air pressure, perhaps his surroundings got a little bit darker – but he had this overwhelming feeling of impending doom.

Pain.

And darkness.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

to be continued! ((let me say again that I _do not_ believe in character death...they may get beaten up, but they won't die)) It extends over the next two themes at least, and it's mostly written, I just need the Kakairu ones to catch up so I can post them together. ^^


	13. Misfortune

"Kurogane! Faaiii!"

"Kurogane-san!"

Fai picked himself up slowly, wincing in pain as he tried to balance his weight on his broken finger. Pain spiked across his chest with every breath – he was fairly certain that he'd broken several ribs when he'd hit the ground. "I'm okay." He called back up as loudly as he could.

"What about Kurogane-san?" Syaoran's voice echoed several times, and Fai pressed his uninjured hand against the side of his head. The cavern they were at the bottom of must have been enormous.

"I don't know." Fai stretched his hands out and felt around. He had no idea if he was even at the bottom yet, or simply stuck on a ledge part of the way down. His hands encountered solid rock as far as he could reach.

"Can you see anything?"

"Nothing." The magician narrowed his eyes. He was sure he'd heard something at the tail end of Syaoran's question.

"Fai-san?"

"I thought I heard something."

The kids fell silent, and Fai froze in place, listening intently.

It was faint, but there. Off to his left, he could just make out the sound of pained breathing.

"Syaoran-kun? I think I know where he is, but it sounds like he's injured. We're going to need help."

Sakura's voice broke the silence for the first time since he'd come to. "You sound different, Fai-san. Like something's really wrong. Syaoran-kun can go; I'll stay."

The magician bit hard on his lower lip and forced normal the bright cheerfulness back into his voice. "Don't worry about me, Sakura-chan; I'm fine! Just a little bruised from the fall. Besides, we've got a lot more air down here, and if you guys stay here much longer, you're going to pass out."

"Alright, we're going then." Syaoran called out into the chasm.

"I'll be here!"

Fai waited for the footsteps to stop echoing down to him before starting the long, grueling traverse towards Kurogane. Shouting up to the kids had created a permanent ache in his side under the broken ribs and between that and his hand, he couldn't guarantee that he would keep silent if any of the injuries were jarred.

He mainly crawled and pulled himself along on his stomach, pausing each time to listen for Kurogane's labored breathing before moving onwards. His hands swept blindly in front of him looking for any break or irregularity in the surface. The last thing he needed was to fall further.

Kurogane was close and directly in front of him when the floor vanished under his outstretched hand. He inched forward, resting his stomach on the very edge and reached downwards. His fingertips barely grazed something solid, but he had no way of knowing how large the lip was or even if it would support his weight.

The swordsman's breathing faltered.

Fai swung his legs over the breach without a second thought.

_My fault. _My_ fault._

He braced himself on his arms and lowered his body slowly until his toes caught on the ledge he'd felt before. It mercifully held his weight and turned out to be a much wider area than he had expected. As he fell to his knees, his hands brushed by the heavy fabric that made up Kurogane's dark armor. He felt along the cloth, reaching the muscled, bare skin of Kurogane's arm. He searched for injuries, blindly seeking wet patches that might indicate blood and listening intently for changes in the other man's breathing.

As he reached Kurogane's thigh, the cloth grew soggy under his touch and, after reaching the torn edge of the cloth, his fingers slid over something smooth and solid. It was something that most people would never feel in their entire life.

Bone.

Protruding from the other man's leg.

Fai sat back and pressed his bloodied hand against his face.

_I just don't want anyone to get hurt because of me._

He could still hear his father screaming at himself and his twin. The old man's words were jumbled and almost unintelligible, but he could still make out the word 'misfortune' repeated over and over again.

In the silence and the darkness that surrounded him, Fai's emotional armor slipped, and all the fear and anguish broke through.

The magician choked, covered his eyes with his hands and rocked back and forth as his shoulders shook with silent sobs.

OOOOOOOOO

Continuation of 11. Sorry about the cliffhanger...again....

Thanks for reading! ^^


	14. Smile

His consciousness returned slowly, but the world remained just as dark with his eyes open as it had been with his eyes closed. He tried to move and cursed under his breath as pain shot through his body.

Something really bad had happened when he landed, but he was too busy trying to remember how to breathe to figure it out.

"Kuro…" His name was whispered on a shaky breath.

"Mage?" He stretched his hand out and encountered something too warm to be the surrounding rocks of the cave. "Shit…I'm hurt."

"Your leg's broken. I think that's the only major thing. The bone is sticking out of your skin."

"The kids?"

"Fine. They didn't fall." He felt Fai shift next to him. "They went to get help."

"Hn." He stuck his hand in the general direction of Fai's shoulder and used the body part he grasped to haul himself into a sitting position. He was grateful that Fai didn't immediately start babbling; the sparks going off behind his eyes were sufficiently annoying.

Even when the pain receded, Fai remained silent.

"Oi."

"They should be back soon." The trembling relief that had permeated Fai's voice when he'd first woken up was gone, and the over-exaggerated cheerfulness was back. "Until then, Kuroi, would you mind terribly taking your hand off my thigh?"

The swordsman swore darkly and yanked his hand away. Fai must have been sitting on a slightly higher ledge. Or perhaps he was standing. He hadn't thought of that.

"You guys still alive down there?" A friendly but unfamiliar voice shouted down to them.

"We're doing what we can." Fai called back up.

They could just barely see a pinpoint of light far up towards the roof of the cavern.

"We've got a rig set up here; we're going to lower a light down to you."

A second point of light began a slow descent, illuminating the cavern as it moved. The opening at the top looked to be no more than ten or fifteen feet across and continued down in a narrow shaft before suddenly opening up to a vast expanse too broad for the light to reach across. Kurogane was amazed he hadn't hit the walls once on his way down. They were almost directly under the opening, so Fai figured he must have caught his finger at the very bottom of the shaft, throwing his trajectory further away from where Kurogane fell.

Kurogane stretched upwards to catch the lantern and balanced it carefully on the ledge. He could just make out the forms of several people at the very top opening.

"Alright, we're going to lower the rope." The stranger called down. "Once it gets down to you, we'll give you instructions."

Kurogane sat back, balancing himself carefully on his arms, his injured leg stretched out in front of him. After waiting for the sharp spikes of pain to ebb, he finally turned his attention to Fai, fully intent on giving the mage a piece of his mind for being a clumsy oaf.

The words died on the tip of his tongue. Fai was perched on a thin ledge next to him, smiling brightly, but the blood, Kurogane's blood probably, that was smeared across the magician's face was streaked, as though the other man had been crying.

A short argument ensued when the rope reached them, but Fai managed to convince him to go first by flatly refusing to tie onto the rope. The show of willpower was surprising, but Kurogane was quickly reaching the point of not giving a shit, so he gave in. The magician dragged him into a wider spot and helped him attach the rope. However, he completely stopped caring about anything when he was halfway up the cliff. The harness swung alarmingly and smashed his injured leg against the wall, and the whole trip out of the passage was spent try to stay conscious despite the sharp needles of pain working their way through his nervous system.

The healer pressed down firmly on his leg as she worked to patch it together. He could feel a strange heat soaking through the injured skin as the woman's magic encased the freshly set bone, slowly bonding it back together.

The woman looked up at a commotion in the hallway and put a hand in the center of his chest when he tried to sit up. "Don't move." She snapped and vanished through the open doorway.

Kurogane lay on his back and tried hard to ignore the throbbing ache in his leg. Several incoherent shouts rang out.

After almost an hour, the healer returned. "Sorry that took so long. Your friend was in fairly bad shape."

"What?!" She actually took a step back at the anger in his voice.

"Well, he had a couple of broken ribs. It looks like one might have shifted when we were moving him. Punctured a lung." She spoke in curt, matter-of-fact tones as she continued to work on his leg. She risked a glance at Kurogane's face and smiled gently. "Don't worry, he's going to be fine."

_Worry?_ Kurogane snarled mentally, _I'm gonna kill him!_

When he woke the next morning, Fai was seated on the edge of his bed. "Good morning, Kuro-chi!"

"What were you thinking?"

"Eh?" Fai cocked his head to one side, and that stupid, oh-so-fake smile stretched his lips.

"A broken leg wouldn't have killed me." The fact that a pierced lung was potentially fatal remained unspoken.

The grin faltered for a second, before returning twice as brightly as before.

"Che. Idiot."

OOOOOOO

End of the 3 theme story. Next one will be a stand alone Thoughts? Like? Hate?

Thanks for reading!


	15. Silence

OOOOOOOOOO

Tomoyo had always teased him that he needed everything explained before he really understood the underlying meaning.

He'd always glared at her, and she would giggle, pat his elbow – since she couldn't reach his shoulder – and let Souma escort her off, leaving Kurogane fuming in the corridor.

He would never admit it, but she was right more often than he would like.

But some things he managed to get without any extra explanation.

He flinched as Fai's magic circle exploded in the magician's face and, without a second thought, reached out to catch Fai as he pitched forward. Kurogane pulled the other man's limp body back against his chest, cradling the narrow frame in his arms as his feet touched down on the ornate, somehow solid circle that appeared beneath his feet.

He didn't need Tomoyo there to point out that, at the beginning of this whole journey, he would have let the magician fall flat on his face, that his heart would never have missed a beat at the sight of blood on Fai's face, and that, now, he was more worried about the other man's life than defeating the opponent.

Sometimes he needed to be beat over the head with the implications of simple actions.

But not always.

OOOOOOOO

Short and hopefully sweet. Pseudo-spoilers for most recent chapters - nothing specific, just a couple of panels that inspired this. Thanks for reading!


	16. Questioning

"Are you sure about this?"

"Don't you trust me, Kuro-tan?"

"Do I look like an idiot?"

"Do you want me to answer that?"

"What do you think?"

"…"

"What?"

"Don't you want to do this?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"Why would you think you didn't have a choice?"

"Isn't the door locked?"

"Does that completely eliminate any other options?"

"Didn't you say this was the only choice earlier?"

"Do you have a better idea?"

"Would it make any difference?"

"Do you have one?"

"…"

"Can you at least stop struggling?"

"Am I making it difficult for you?"

"Don't you think it would be easier if you just held still?"

"Why on earth do you think I want to make it easier for you?"

"Don't you want me to get off you sooner?"

Kurogane snarled darkly up at the mage. Fai was kneeling on his shoulders, hands feeling up the rough walls of the prison towards the iron grate that barred off the only window in the room. The magician had been insisting that he could free the bars and get them out of the dank room.

The whole situation was just decidedly uncomfortable, but given a choice between escape and having to put up with this stupidity, he'd put up with the stupidity.

He just hoped the magician was right.

OOOOOOO

Bet you thought something else was going on! No, probably not, these types of fics are really overdone.

Soooo hard to write in questions tho. Go ahead, try it! I dare you!

Thanks for reading!


	17. Blood

M-rated. Seriously. Don't complain to me afterwards if you're offended. You're only allowed to complain if you think it sucks.

No smut should be allowed to be this long....

OOOOOOOOOOO

Fai tilted his head as he sank his teeth deeper into Kurogane's arm. He was feeding carefully and slowly, hesitant to push too far given the other man's recent injury.

As he drank, cold, metallic fingers swept over the exposed length of his neck, gently pushing Fai's hair away from his face. The long fingers slid around the back of his neck, pressing gently against the skin, and his thumb rubbed small circles on the magician's cheek. Somehow – and Kurogane had to chalk it up to the Tomoyo in Piffle's genius with machinery – he could feel the heat of the other man's skin, even through the artificial limb. He could even feel Fai's throat move with each slow swallow.

In all the times Fai had fed from him, forced or not, Kurogane had never made any gesture like this.

The magician licked softly at the already healing wound as he pulled away from Kurogane's arm and sat up between the shinobi's legs, leaning into the strong hand.

Whether Kurogane pulled or Fai leaned was no matter to the two. Who moved first was an argument that started later when Fai began to tease him about it, but in this moment, neither of them even noticed that they'd shifted until their lips met.

Kurogane's fingers tightened around Fai's neck, tugging him closer. The metal joints pulled at the short locks of hair at the base of Fai's neck, and his lips parted with a startled gasp at the unfamiliar sensation. The shinobi's hands drew away from Fai's neck, as if satisfied that the other man wasn't going to pull away, and slid under the collar of the loose fitting garment, easing it off Fai's shoulders. The gentle, tentative motions turned into something more intense and frantic as years of sexual frustration finally boiled over and released.

Kurogane's hands closed around his hips in a vise grip, and he was rolled over onto all fours. As much as he wanted this, he still couldn't completely squash the need to shy away from the sudden touch against his entrance.

"…okay…it's okay. Just been a while…" Fai whispered into his folded arms, trying to quell the shaking of his body. It had been a long time since the last time he'd done this; not to mention that the last time had also been his first time. That, combined with the fact that neither he nor his partner had any experience, had made it hurt a fair bit more than he figured it was supposed to.

Kurogane's weight pulled away from him, and he twisted, terrified that he'd driven the other man away. "Wha…?

He was pushed back against the rough wooden floor, sprawling flat on his back.

Kurogane's lips hooked up into a dark smile as he dragged his segmented fingers down Fai's chest until they caught under the tie of his robe. A quick jerk freed the knot in the cloth, and Fai lay exposed, his knees drawing up at the sudden draft of cold air.

His hips bucked involuntarily as Kurogane's mouth enveloped him, and his legs fell open as he desperately pushed forward, seeking more of the delicious heat.

Kurogane had always imagined that Fai would be incredibly vocal during sex, especially given the fact that he was never able to get Fai to shut up when his peppy alter ego took over. The one, or two, times during their journey that he'd broken down and masturbated – after subtly suggesting with the point of his sword that Fai and the kids go do something long and complicated for the remainder of the afternoon and double bolting the door – he'd closed his eyes and pictured the lithe form beneath him, incomprehensible words streaming from Fai's mouth.

But the choked gasps and moans escaping from around where Fai's arm was thrown across his face were infinitely more erotic.

A deep growl of approval echoed deep in his throat as he pulled away and licked at the underside of Fai's shaft before sitting completely back on his heels and pushing to his feet.

The whimper that pushed its way past Fai's hands drew a chuckle from him.

Fai dropped his hands slowly and watched as Kurogane crossed the room to a set of low drawers against the far wall. The shinobi was still fully clothed, but he could see a bulge stretching the cloth and altering Kurogane's normally strong and fluid stride.

His heart slammed against his ribcage, and he swallowed hard against a suddenly dry mouth. Kurogane's feelings were, of course, blatantly obvious. Sacrificing your arm to save someone's life – especially his life – was a gesture who's meaning could not be mistaken.

But it was something else to know that he was desired like this.

Loved. And wanted.

Kurogane's still-flesh hand cupped his ass, spreading him and smearing some thick gel across his skin. The shinobi leaned in and captured his lips as he slid his finger into him. Fai gasped into the kiss. The intrusion felt strange, hurt even, but not nearly as much as he remembered. Kurogane continued to bite gently at his lower lip as he pumped his finger in and out agonizingly slowly.

Fai's head flung back away from him as he added a second and then a third finger, and he dug his fingers into Kurogane's upper arm. Fai's eyes were squeezed shut, but the expressions flitting across his face were more and more sincere as the actions stripped away every last lingering bit of his mask.

His body jerked in surprise as Kurogane's fingers brushed across his prostate, the cry of pleasure clearly louder than he'd intended because he sank his teeth into his lip and turned his face towards the floor. But his eyes flew open the second Kurogane pulled his fingers out of him.

He watched intently as Kurogane reached for the small tub of gel he was using as lubricant. Tomoyo'd given it to him ages ago, with a knowing wink, which he'd promptly blocked from his mind. But now he had to wonder if the damn seer had seen this coming.

Fai crawled forward slowly, clearly not used to the feeling of being stretched, and took the lubricant from Kurogane's hands. His fingers tangled in the knot of the sash still holding the shinobi's robe closed, and his brow drew down over his visible eye as he glared irritably at the offending clothing before finally managing to struggle it open.

He scooped some lube into his palm and rolled his hand tentatively over the head of Kurogane's penis, gaining courage when the other man grunted his approval and thrust into his groping hand.

He was so intent on the noises Kurogane was making that he didn't notice the other man moving until he wrapped metal fingers around his wrist and pulled his hand away. Fai had felt the thick length pulsing under his hands. Was it actually possible he'd brought Kurogane to the brink of coming?

Kurogane pushed Fai onto his hands and knees and aligned himself with his entrance. He felt Fai's frame shiver under his hands, but slowly pushed in anyway, every sense trained on Fai. He would never do anything to hurt the mage, but he also knew that Fai wouldn't say anything if he was in pain.

So he eased in, inch by inch, gloating at the way Fai's back arched farther and farther as he pushed his way in and stopping only when he had buried himself completely in the other man's body.

Fai's arms were braced on the floor, and his legs spread wide around Kurogane's. He could see the muscles clenching and unclenching across Fai's bare shoulders as the other man adjusted to his presence.

The shoulder muscles tightened suddenly, and Kurogane swallowed a gasp of pleasure as Fai thrust back onto the shinobi's dick. His rapidly fraying control snapped, and he gripped Fai's hips, rocketing forward and shifting his angle until he managed to find the other man's prostate.

"Ku…kuro…" Fai moaned desperately, driving himself back with all his might. The brief, burning pain of penetration had subsided and the overwhelming pleasure of having someone inside of him was making his body tremble. His fingers dug grooves across the wood floor as he scrambled to brace himself. He was strong, but not as strong as the man fucking him, and the force of Kurogane's thrusts was starting to shove him forward.

The weeping tip of his dick brushed across the cloth piled up on the floor underneath him, and he cried out, pushing forward into the welcome friction.

Kurogane's artificial fingers grasped his hip and yanked him back away from it before sliding his hand around to grip his stomach and pull them both up into a sitting position so that Fai was straddling his legs.

Without a second thought, Fai lifted himself up and down, riding Kurogane's rock hard cock, a small moan falling from his mouth with every downward thrust.

All the masks were gone. Fai's emotions were finally plastered clearly across his face with no attempt to disguise them, and Kurogane snarled deeply into magician's shoulder, wishing he'd thought to turn the other man around when he'd changed positions.

Cold, metal fingers closed around his dick, smearing pre-cum down the throbbing shaft and started to pump frantically. They were both so close.

Fai fell over the edge first, his head falling back onto Kurogane's shoulder as he scream the other man's name. The clutching of his internal muscles combined with the semen spraying across his hand and up Fai's chest pushed Kurogane over, and he let out a drawn-out grunt as he came deep in Fai's ass.

They both sprawled to the floor as their muscles quit on them. Fai groaned at the stickiness oozing from between his thighs, but the discomfort was forgotten as Kurogane pulled him against his chest, dragged one of their robes over their lower halves, and pressed his lips to Fai's forehead.

"Ne, ne, Kuroi?" Fai couldn't quite resist the urge to interrupt the moment, though he really had no idea what he was planning to ask.

"Shut up." Kurogane hauled Fai's leg over his hips, bringing their lengths dangerously close. "Go to sleep.'

OOOOOOO

For everyone who was bummed by the last chapter not being about what it seemed like it was about.

This took forever, and now you know why I don't write smut...horrible....*hides*


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